The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Dear God, open our minds and hearts, so that we may know something of you. Forgive us when our visions are too small and when we are too lazy to step outside them. Forgive us when we reduce you, dear God, to our own understanding and control. Help us to be grateful that there will always be more. AmenBy Barbara Butler, from Look to Christ, Methodist Prayer Handbook 2004-2005 for Methodists

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Prayer is difficult

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

• Romans 8• 26 In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps us

when we are weak. We don't know what we should pray for. But the Spirit himself prays for us. He prays with groans too deep for words. 27 God, who looks into our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit. And the Spirit prays for God's people just as God wants him to pray.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, "Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." 2-4So he said, "When you pray, say,

Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

• Our Father in heaven,help us to honour your name.Come and set up your kingdom,so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven.Give us our food for today.Forgive us for doing wrong, as we forgive others.Keep us from being tempted and protect us from evil.Matthew 6:9-13

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

r pa in evan, respect 2 u, may u rain ear as in evan. giv us r needs, 4giv rsin as we 4giv r nmes. resq us from the evil 1. 4 ur always the most xlent dude. Yo

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

God@heaven.org, You rule, up and down. We need grub and a break. Will pass it on. Keep us focused. You totally rule, long term. Amen.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

God of compassion UR here 24/7UR @hom, @schl, @wrk,W al genr8ns. Thnq.Lord help me 2 care 4 othrs 4 they r ur ppl. Amen.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Our Father in Heaven, Remind us constantly that you are parent to all your children, Whoever, or wherever they are or come from. Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, Establishing peace and justice, hope and life for all peoples. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Disturb us into awareness of the needs of others.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Forgive us our sins, Our pride and our prejudices. As we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, Especially keep our hearts and minds open To see the good in others. Deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, Just and true,

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

The power, Gentle and fair, And the glory, Shot through with the colours of love, Are yours for ever and ever. Amen. [From: From Shore to Shore. A new resource of liturgies, litanies and prayers from around the world. Pub. by USPG and SPCK. Used with permission.]

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Prayer for the Decade of NonviolenceBy Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB (from Pax Christi)

Our FatherI bow to the sacred in all creation.May my spirit fill the world with beauty and wonder.May my mind seek truth with humility and openness.May my heart forgive without limit.May my love for friend, enemy and outcast be without measure.May my needs be few and my living simple.May my tongue speak for those who are poor without fear of the powerful.May my prayers rise with patient discontent until no child is hungry.May my life's work be a passion for peace and nonviolence.May my soul rejoice in the present moment.May my imagination overcome death and despair with new possibility.And may I risk reputation, comfort and security to bring this hope to the children.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Supermarket ConfessionsForgive O Lord, our indifference to the needs of others. Our thoughtlessness

and self-interest. How easy it is to forget, when we are loading our trolleys in the supermarket, that others toil to bring us our daily food.

Forgive O Lord, our voracious appetites for some thing new, regardless of where it comes from, and who produces it. The unrealistic prices we pay, and the subsidies we expect.

Forgive O Lord, that we do not equate the results of our own self interest with the plight of so many producers who live in poverty.

Forgive O Lord, when we turn our heads and pretend we do not see.Lord may we become more aware of our thoughtless self-interest and easy

indiiference.© Irene Sayer

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Prayer for OlympicsEverlasting God, giver of joy and source of abundant life,we pray for all who are involved in the Beijing Olympic Games,and especially those who represent Great Britain:for their safe-keeping and well-being;and as we celebrate the skill and resolve of those who competewe pray that, throughout the Games, there would be a striving for excellence, a spirit of humility and fair play, and a respect for others,and that all who wait on you may find their strength renewedin Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Prayer for the current financial situationLord God, we live in disturbing days: across the world, prices rise, debts increase, banks collapse, jobs are taken away, and fragile security is under threat.Loving God, meet us in our fear and hear our prayer:be a tower of strength amidst the shifting sands,and a light in the darkness;help us receive your gift of peace,and fix our hearts where true joys are to be found,in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Useless

Lord, let me not live to be useless. Amen.

John Wesley, eighteen century.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

KETTLE PRAYERS

Make something in your ordinary life a prayer time. Try saying the Lord's Pray for someone while the kettle boils or while you're waiting at the photocopier, or when you're pulling weights at the gym. Try using prayers that are familiar to

you, but in a place where you don't normally pray.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

PrayGod of certainty and steady truth, remind me

that you are glad for me to come, whether I am full of fire or I am feeling cold. Let my prayer this day to be to you a feely given act of praise and devotion. Amen.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Some of them are the faces of strangers or near strangers. Some of them are faces that our hearts go out to, and some of them are faces that seem to shut us out as for no good reason our hearts seem to shut them out. But to watch them is at least from time to time, by God’s grace, to see them all, friends and strangers alike, as human beings bound on the same fateful journey that we are bound on, full of all the same hopes and misgivings, the same longings and memories, the same fears about tomorrow and confusions about today that also fill us

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

And when such times come, it is possible as we watch them move past us, I think, to reach out to them in our hearts and to wish then enormously well as though even the strangers among them are as precious to us as the people we have known longest and loved the best in all the world.

The everyday sense of God’s presence.

Philippians 4:6-8 (The Message) 6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let

petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.